Nickrj’s rant for Winter Combat 1996

 

This Coliseum Video focuses on highlight matches from In Your House 4 from Winnepeg Manitoba Canada on October 22, 1995 and In Your House 5 from Hershey, Pennslyvania on December 17, 1995. The latter show is one I saw live on PPV. Also noted that these are two of the lowest buyrated shows ever.

 

Your host is Handsome Dok Hendrix

 

WWF Title Match: Diesel VS The British Bulldog (with Jim Cornette)

From IYH 4. The Bulldog had tricked Diesel into being his partner against Men On A Mission and turned heel against him. Two weeks earlier in a 6-man tag, the Bulldog got a clean pin over Diesel thus starting the downfall of the Clique. Vince, JR and Bret Hart are on commentary here. A Diesel lookalike and a Bulldog fan are in the audience. Bulldog can’t draw heat by yelling “SHUT UP!” Tie up and Diesel with a power shove off. Bulldog with a side headlock and he runs into a forearm. He’s caught and slammed hard down. Another slam by Nash sends Davey to the outside. Dave grabs the legs of Diesel but he gets kicked into the post. Diesel with a couple of charges and some elbows. Bulldog hits the knee though and he dropkicks Diesel to the outside near Bret and Diesel shoves Bret for whatever reason. That allows the Bulldog to clip Diesel and injure his leg. Bulldog to work on the left leg inside now. He tries a Texas Cloverleaf but can’t quite turn him over. Diesel gets out with an elbow though but he’s kicked to the outside where Corny drops an elbow on the leg and stomps on it. Diesel is rammed into the steps and Corny works on the leg some more. Back in the Bulldog continues to work on the left leg. He hooks a half crab. Now a full Boston Crab. Diesel powers out of it but Bulldog is back on him. Back to the Half Crab. Legdrop for 2. (First cover of this match.) Diesel gets up but is clipped down again. Elbow drop on the knee. Elbow by Diesel but is clipped down again. Bulldog back to work on the leg. Diesel kicks him over the top rope though. But he misses an elbow and Bulldog continues to work on the leg. Diesel kicks out of it and Bulldog tries a suplex but it is reversed. Diesel with a back suplex. “Diesel” chant goes on now. Bulldog almost gets a three count. Bulldog tries the Sharpshooter and hooks it pretty sloppily and Diesel powers out. He falls on top of Bulldog on a slam for 2. Bulldog picks up Diesel for the powerslam but he runs into a big boot instead. Corny is thrown into the ring and Bulldog mistakenly nails him. Walking butt splash on the ropes sends Bulldog to the outside. Diesel goes out and hurts his knee again and he’s thrown into the post. Bulldog goes over to Bret and slaps his headset off and Bret runs in the ring and pummels Bulldog for the DQ at 18:13. Bad ending and all that legwork didn’t mean nothing at the end but at least there was psychology. ** Vince and JR are shocked at the decision but I’m not. Diesel and Bret brawl with each other and a number of officials and wrestlers break it up.

 

Marty Jannetty VS Goldust

From IYH 4. This is Dustin Rhodes’ debut as Goldust. He tries to charge Marty but he’s backdropped and clotheslined to the outside. Marty knees him on the aisleway. Back in and Goldie quickly back out. Back in Goldie decides to stall and he rolls up Marty for 2 and slaps him. Hard uppercut sends Marty down. Marty gets a hurricurana and is hammered in the face. Marty pummels Goldie some more but he oversells a clothesline. Goldie tries to rip Marty’s face off now and pummels him. Snap mare and a fistdrop for 2. Chinlock now. Eyerake by Goldie and a backdrop. Marty is thrown out of the ring and he is hammered some more. Marty sends him outside on a snapmare though and he rams Goldie to the steps. Goldie throws him hard into the post though. Suplex back in by Goldie for 2. Chinlock again. Marty sends Goldie down on a sloppy move but he misses a charge and goes out to the apron as they show a Dracula in the audience. DDT by Goldie for 2 but Marty gets a fameasser. He goes to the top and misses but lands on his feet. Elbow to the neck for 2. Clotheslines by Marty. Snapmare and he goes to the top rope and falls onto a foot. Goldie hits the Curtain Call for the pin at 11:15. Too long for what it was worth 1/2*

 

Casket Match: The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) VS Fat Albert…er King Mabel (With Sir Mo)

“Hey Hey Hey! This is from IYH 5!” Thanks Albert. Now then, Mabel along with Yokozuna crushed UT’s face at the end of the 6 man match in October so UT is now wearing a protective mask until his face was healed completely. Mabel pummels UT to start but UT fights back and Mabel does a terrible job of selling. Stinger Splash by UT. Bossman slam by Mabel and UT sits up. Clothesline by Mabel and UT sits up again. Slam by Mabel and he goes to the 2nd rope and misses a splash. UT fires back some more with Clotheslines but he’s distracted by Mo and Mabel hits the Belly To Belly and a legdrop. UT can’t sit up now. A 570lb splash by Mabel. I wonder what this guy ate every day. Mo puts UT into the casket but can’t shut the lid. Mabel tries it but UT blocks it and he hammers Mabel. Flying clothesline takes down the big man and a chokeslam! He kicks Mabel into the casket. Mo attacks UT with the necklace (UT’s urn) but he’s chokeslammed and thrown into the casket as well. UT grabs the necklace from Mo’s neck and slams the lid at 6:10. Bad match but not as bad as it could’ve been 1/2* Best of all though it kills Mabel’s push in the WWF. At least for another 3 ½ years.

 

On October 13th 1995. Shawn Michaels was attacked by nine thugs in a Syracuse nightclub and taken to the hospital. This was just four days after the 6 man tag team match aired where Shawn took a tremendous beating and then he was slammed on the steps by Dean Douglas after the match. He was really ok when he was going to defend his IC title against Douglas but Shawn refused to job so he forfeits the title to Douglas (who snatches it from Michaels as he was handing it to Gorilla Monsoon.) in Winnipeg. President Monsoon orders that Douglas will defend the title though against Shawn’s clique buddy Razor Ramon.

 

IC Title Match: Dean Douglas VS Razor Ramon

From IYH 4. Razor had already had a match here tonight so he starts pummeling on Dean and he goes to the outside. Razor and the 1-2-3 Kid lost a title match to the Smoking Gunns earlier this night. Razor goes to the left arm of Shane and pulls on it. This goes on for awhile. Elbows to the jaw by Dean but he misses a charge and goes to the left arm again. Dean pulls the ref out of the way and hammers on Razor. Fallaway slam by Razor and he clotheslines Dean to the outside. He clotheslines Dean on the top rope. Eye poke by Dean and he’s knocked outside again. Douglas is vertical suplexed back in. Dean is thrown hard backfirst to the corner and to the outside again. Razor grabs a bottle of water from JR and pours it on Dean. Back to the left arm. Atomic drop by Razor and he sets up the Razor’s Edge but is backdropped to the outside. Dean pummels on Razor outside. Thrown back in and Dean goes to the top but is caught and chokeslammed. Razor hammers on Dean. He tries the top rope back suplex but is elbowed and a flying bodypress by Dean is turned over by Razor for 2. Dropkick by Dean and Razor gets his foot on the ropes. Back suplex by Razor and he gets the pin at 11:00 to win the IC title. Even though replays showed that Dean’s foot was clearly outside the ring. There’s the clique for you *1/2

 

Arkansas Hogpen Match: Henry Godwinn VS Hunter Hearst Helmsley

From IYH 5. Hillbilly Jim is the special referee. A hogpen (filled with mud slop and about 300 pigs.) is set up about 20 feet away from the ring and the loser of the match has to be dumped into the pen by his opponent. In JR’s cookbook I saw a couple of pictures of JR in that pen wearing overalls. I forgot what he said to the pigs though. Hank’s got 2 buckets of slop. He inadverntally throws one bucket at a ringside attendant. Hank gets a backdrop though and Hunter goes to the outside. Slap in the face by Hank and he ties Hunter in the ropes, grabs some slop from the 2nd bucket and smears it in Hunter’s face. Hunter is angry now as he nails Hank. Neckbreaker by Hunter. Kneedrop. We’ve just seen 2 of the 4 moves Hunter had at the time. High knee. Make that three. They go to the outside now and Hunter is rammed head first into the steps. Hank picks up Hunter but he’s nailed and thrown into the rail. Hank does the same to Hunter. Hank is thrown back first into the steel gate of the pen. Hunter tries the Pedigree but is backdropped onto the top of the pen but not into it. Hunter givesan elbow from the top of the pen though. They go back in the ring and Hank runs into a boot. Hank blocks a monkey flip and slams him face first. Hunter is flipped upside down in the corner and out of the ring ala clique buddy Shawn Michaels. Hank throws some more slop at Hunter and they go to the pen again and Hunter blocks the slop drop. Hunter is thrown back first into the gate and his back his busted open hardway I think. Hank hits the slop drop but can’t capalize. They both get up and Hank charges Hunter but he’s backdropped into the pen at 9:17. Actually a pretty fun match **1/2. Hunter gets into a shove fest with Jim and he’s picked up by Hank and press slammed into the pen giving the fans their money’s worth. Hunter does a great job trying to get up. He slips in the pen twice.

 

Diesel VS Owen Hart (With Jim Cornette)

From IYH 5. This is Diesel’s first match without the WWF title and Dok thinks he almost looked nude with out the title. Anyways Diesel wants revenge for his buddy Shawn Michaels after Owen hit Shawn with an enzuguri and Shawn later collapsed and was taken to the hospital (again). Diesel throws Owen into the corner and he tosses him around. Sidewalk Slam. Leap frog by Owen though and a 10 punch count and he’s thrown off. Owen is clotheslined to the outside. He’s slammed on the back of his head inside the ring. Owen ducks the big boot and hits the Spinning heel kick. He goes to the top and hits a missle dropkick. He goes to work on the left leg just like Bulldog did earlier. He kicks the leg of Diesel and hits the Enzuguri for 2. Owen tries the Figure Four but is kicked into the corner. Diesel throws Owen to the turnbuckle and hits the butt splash on the ropes. Big boot and he signals for the Jackknife and he hits it saying “This is for you Shawn!” He covers him but lets him go. Diesel sets up another jackknife but he shoves the ref and is DQ’d at 4:36. Another Jackknife for Owen. Well that ending sure sucked. **1/4

 

WWF Title Match: Bret Hart VS The British Bulldog (With Jim Cornette)

From IYH 5. Diana Smith, the wife of the Bulldog and sister of Bret is sitting at ringside for this match. This of course is the rematch from the famous Wembley Stadium match at Summerslam 92. Tie up and Bulldog gets a shove. Another tie up and the same result. Snapmare and a nice wrestling sequence by both men. Bulldog brings Bret down by the hair. Armdrag by Bret and he works on the left arm. Slam by Bulldog is countered. Cross Body by Bret for 2. Reverse Atmoic Drop. Hammerlock by Bret. Kneelift by Davey though and a backslam. He hangs Bret upside down in the corner and kicks away. He accidentally hits the ref and pulls him back up. Snapmare into the chinlock by Bulldog. Diana is watching her brother and husband beat each other up as Bulldog gets a samoan drop and legdrop for 2. Back to the chinlock. Corny gets a cheapshot with his racket and then lies to the cameraman. Chinlock again by Bulldog. Bret starts to fight back but is thrown stomach first to the corner for 2. Backdrop for another 2. Chinlock again. Leapfrog and Monkey flip by Bret. Inverted Atmoic drop. Bulldog for 2. Piledriver gets another 2. Bret starts the FIVE MOVES OF DOOM. Russian Leg sweep. 2nd rope elbow. He sets up Bulldog for a superplex and he is thrown off right on the ropes! Bulldog goes outside and hits Bret to the steps where he blades on the way down. He then rams him backfirst into the post. By now we can see that Bret is leaving a pool of blood on the floor. I remember watching this and saying “Oh my god!” live on PPV. Bret is thrown into the rail. They go back inside as the crowd chants “He’s hardcore!” Bret is thrown back first into the corner and a piledriver by Bulldog for 2. Diana now has a tear in her eye. Vertical suplex by Bulldog for 2. Pressslam for another 2. Slam and he goes to the top rope and hits a headbutt to the fannie for 2. He hooks the Bow and Arrow submission. Bret gets up and immediately goes for the Sharpshooter but can’t do it.  Bulldog nails Bret to the outside again. Bret gets a german suplex for 2. Double clothesline spot. Bulldog’s tights are now stained by blood. He’s backdropped over the top rope. Slingshot bodypress by Bret on Bulldog. He tries it again but he’s caught and powerslammed on the floor. Bulldog now pulls open the cover of the floor. He tries a suplex but Bret crotches him on the railing and clotheslines him. They go back in again. Backbreaker by Bret for 2. Bulldog is thrown upside down in the corner and he lands on his head. Bret sets up the superplex again and this time he hits it for 2. Bulldog rolls up Bret but Bret reverses for 2. Sloppy backdrop by Bret. Bulldog runs into a boot in the corner. Bret hooks a 3/4 nelson for the pin at 21:10 to retain!! What a tremendous match. Probally not as good as the Wembley Stadium one but none the less. Great match and great drama ****1/2

 

Summary: Well this tape has some good and some bad however the Bret/Bulldog match is pretty hard to find so this tape is worth tracking down although I still think the Wembley Stadium match is better. MILDLY RECOMMENDED